Printing: Stuck on 'Hold for authentication'

Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Use the search box in the toolbar of the Keychain Access to search for the name of the shared printer. Double-click one of the items and check the box marked Show password in the inspector window. You'll be prompted for your keychain password to confirm. Make a note of the user name and password. Then delete every "Network Password" item in the search results. Quit Keychain Access.

The next time you send a job to the printer, you'll be prompted for the user name and password. Enter the information you noted earlier and check the box to save it in the Keychain.

Have a look at OS X: Active Directory-authorized SMB print queue may display "hold for authentication" - Apple Support

and OS X: How to enable Kerberos authentication for shared printers - Apple Support

or https://it.faa.illinois.edu/services/printing/57-printing-services/280-osx-print -job-on-hold

Goatboy76 wrote:

I've been able to have my mac send the print file over to the Windows computer. But it can't print there because it says its size is zero bytes and the number of pages is N/A. This happens on all documents.

Something worth checking…

Windows defaults to adding printers using a PCL print driver, the Mac however normally uses a PostScript print drive. If the Mac sends PostScript to a PCL print queue it is likely not going to work. Therefore check what driver the Windows print queue is configured to use and if necessary change it.

Thanx

This has been the best answer for me. It worked perfectly. Thanks a lot. I'd looked for dozens of other answers on the web in vain.